Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I knew about LED heat dissipation issues but I'd be surprised if at equivalent light output the incandescent would heat less..


As far as that goes, I suspect most incandescent bulbs can take a lot of heat. (The one in your oven, for example, which I suspect is a pretty vanilla bulb.)


They put out much less heat, but they're also much more sensitive to heat. (Incandescent bulbs, meanwhile, are heat, and mostly don't mind.)


Combine this fact with the fact that most enclosed fixtures that were designed for incandescent bulbs are insulated (at least on the mounting side) to keep the heat from the bulb inside the fixture (fire prevention reasons) and even the low heat level output by an LED bulb can eventually warm the interior above the temperature that the driver electronics can tolerate.


The leds are generally ok as components, but badly designed power electronics are the failing portion. However, strand LEDs designed for bulbs w/ no power electronics are on a completely different reliability basis.


Sometimes it's not even that; I've had bulbs where the glue holding the frosted glass part came off the base, because of the heat.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: